McKeever fever hits Vancouver Paralympics

BRIAN McKeever rebounded from his Olympic disappointment to claim Paralympic gold with a comfortable and impressive 20km cross country skiing victory in Whistler.

DELIGHT: Brian McKeever and guide and brother Robin celebrate receiving their Paralympic gold at Whistler's Medal Plaza (Getty Images)

McKeever was devastated after Canadian team officials benched him for the 50km event on the final day of the Vancouver Olympics - meaning his high-profile involvement was restricted to a watching brief.

But the skier, who is legally blind, and guide and brother Robin responded in the best way - claiming an eighth career Paralympic medal, and his fifth gold, with a comfortable win over nearest challengers, Russia's Nikolay Polukhin and Vasili Shaptsiaboi, of Belarus.

"It makes what happens at the Olympics a lot easier," said McKeever, 30.

"We're never going to forget it but this helps us move on. We have more racing yet to go so there are still more things to look ahead to.

"However, this the one we were waiting to win, the one we really wanted. We'd never won the 20 km before. It's been eight years in the making, the third Paralympics and that's the one we wanted."

Meanwhile, McKeever insists he's not given up an another crack at making the Canadian Olympic team in Sochi.

"Do I want it? Absolutely," he said. "We're already starting the plans to see how we can get there and to make sure that the training will be right."

Elsewhere, Russian dominated with Kirill Mikhaylov winning the men's 20km (sitting) event and Anna Burmistrova claiming gold in the women's 15km (sitting).

Norway's Nils-Erik Ulset and Russia's Vladimir Kononov completed the podium behind Mikhaylov while Iullia Batenkova, of the Ukraine, and Poland's Katarzyna Rogowiec claimed silver and bronze respectively in the women's event.